MONKEY ON A STRING

by Joseph Viertel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 1967

Joseph Viertel wrote a reasonably good, popular book about the Jews a few years back (The Last Temptation). This just seems spurious and suspect... about Marcus Garvey Holmes whose namesake led the back to Africa movement. Our Marcus is born in a Florida shanty; his father believes that the Negro should keep his distance from the white folks, but Marcus makes his first attempt to ""bridge the bridgeless gap"" when he goes to West Point, his second, after some years, when he marries a white girl, skittery, sensitive Robbi who tries to commit suicide at fifteen (a mother hang-up). Marcus does well during the war, later in Washington, still later in Africa where he heads a Kennedy-sponsored, vista-visioned program. Robbi has a girl he names Eleanor Roosevelt Holmes and her mother calls a ""white pickaninny""; later everything goes to pieces--Robbi, Marcus and his Experiment, and the book even though it wasn't much to begin with......Maybe in fiction white folks should keep their distance from the Negro (present best seller company excepted); in any case this is certainly not very evoluee.

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1967

ISBN: 1587761084

Page Count: -

Publisher: Trident

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1967

Categories: FICTION